richy
New member
- Mar 27, 2007
- 5,158
- 0
For years I have made it by with using my Gaia steamer when I have needed to extract something. It is a better steamer than it is an extractor. The pump died and now I had nothing and was in the market for an extractor. I wanted a heated one and the inches of lift were very important to me just like they were when I bought my Powr Flite PF51 wet vac.
My search started at Autogeek and I compared many different makes and models from a bunch of different sites. Ironically and sadly, AG had the Mytee Lite incorrectly listed at 85" of lift I think if I recall correctly. My PF51 has more than that so I didn't give it a 2nd look. I was starting to get confused looking at so many. I then hit upon the Mytee Lite II on a different site and it was listed as 130" of lift which is quite impressive! I forgot AG had the same unit listed with a lower value. After some negotiation with the owner of the other site, I was the proud owner of the Mytee Lite II extractor.
Here is a link for it after being corrected (I actually called Nick and told him) by AG:
Mytee Lite II 8070 Hot Water Carpet Extractor, carpet cleaning machine, hot water carpet cleaner
I didn't want to spend that much but when I compared everything it really seemed like the logical thing to do. Besides, my wife had recently paid Sears to do a carpet cleaning of some of our rooms and I wasn't really impressed, not to mention they left the carpeting fairly wet.
The one thing that people complained about was burning their hand on the connection fittings. I racked my brain about that and came up with a $0.89 solution that I'll share in a moment.
The first run for it was to do my stairs leading down into the basement. I didn't shoot any before shots but I deliberately stopped 1/2 through a step and did not finish the bottom section to show the before and after difference.
My thoughts on using the machine:
Easy about sums it up. Do the switches in the right order, and purge the lines of cool water and you get instantly very hot water. The suction was amazing. I don't think the 130" is an embellishment. The carpeting sure felt dryer than it did after Sears was finished, I'll tell you that!
My method: I used straight water in the tank and shot the stairs with some extractor carpet cleaning solution I have had for years (I bought a 5 gal pail of it years ago). I did not even agitate the area. I just extracted it up after letting it dwell for about 5 minutes. I added some vinegar to the recovery tank. There was no foam in there at all which is also a factor of using the proper soap. (The soap is from Roto Stat which is another carpet cleaning company). I didn't think I was going to write a review so I didn't do the mandatory dirty-water-in-the-bucket shot but I showed it to my girls who both said "EWWWWWWWWWWWWW".
My 89 cent solution for the fitting? I bought a foam sleeve you use for hot water pipes in your house and cut it to fit. Here it is:
Here are the stairs all done:
Check out the 50/50 shot on the stair and observe the dirty carpeting below:
A close up 50/50:
So, yes, it was a fairly substantial investment but I definitely believe it's worth it. No more paying Sears for a job that I can do better and will end up with dryer carpeting than what they leave behind. I am very impressed with this machine so far.
My search started at Autogeek and I compared many different makes and models from a bunch of different sites. Ironically and sadly, AG had the Mytee Lite incorrectly listed at 85" of lift I think if I recall correctly. My PF51 has more than that so I didn't give it a 2nd look. I was starting to get confused looking at so many. I then hit upon the Mytee Lite II on a different site and it was listed as 130" of lift which is quite impressive! I forgot AG had the same unit listed with a lower value. After some negotiation with the owner of the other site, I was the proud owner of the Mytee Lite II extractor.
Here is a link for it after being corrected (I actually called Nick and told him) by AG:
Mytee Lite II 8070 Hot Water Carpet Extractor, carpet cleaning machine, hot water carpet cleaner
I didn't want to spend that much but when I compared everything it really seemed like the logical thing to do. Besides, my wife had recently paid Sears to do a carpet cleaning of some of our rooms and I wasn't really impressed, not to mention they left the carpeting fairly wet.
The one thing that people complained about was burning their hand on the connection fittings. I racked my brain about that and came up with a $0.89 solution that I'll share in a moment.
The first run for it was to do my stairs leading down into the basement. I didn't shoot any before shots but I deliberately stopped 1/2 through a step and did not finish the bottom section to show the before and after difference.
My thoughts on using the machine:
Easy about sums it up. Do the switches in the right order, and purge the lines of cool water and you get instantly very hot water. The suction was amazing. I don't think the 130" is an embellishment. The carpeting sure felt dryer than it did after Sears was finished, I'll tell you that!
My method: I used straight water in the tank and shot the stairs with some extractor carpet cleaning solution I have had for years (I bought a 5 gal pail of it years ago). I did not even agitate the area. I just extracted it up after letting it dwell for about 5 minutes. I added some vinegar to the recovery tank. There was no foam in there at all which is also a factor of using the proper soap. (The soap is from Roto Stat which is another carpet cleaning company). I didn't think I was going to write a review so I didn't do the mandatory dirty-water-in-the-bucket shot but I showed it to my girls who both said "EWWWWWWWWWWWWW".
My 89 cent solution for the fitting? I bought a foam sleeve you use for hot water pipes in your house and cut it to fit. Here it is:
Here are the stairs all done:
Check out the 50/50 shot on the stair and observe the dirty carpeting below:
A close up 50/50:
So, yes, it was a fairly substantial investment but I definitely believe it's worth it. No more paying Sears for a job that I can do better and will end up with dryer carpeting than what they leave behind. I am very impressed with this machine so far.
rops: